After his regrettable encounter with Cambridge, Mass., police this week, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. now must put up with debate over whether the incident arose from police insensitivity or his own short fuse. Charges against Gates, the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at […]

It was widely reported last week that labor legislation pending in Congress won’t include the “card check” provision sought by labor unions. Card check would have enabled eligible employees to form a union simply by signing up. The law would have stripped companies of the right to demand that unionization be certified by a secret-ballot […]

Moderate senators, including Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have urged the White House to back off from its ambitious goal of passing health care reform bills in the House and Senate by the end of summer. President Barack Obama, who speaks highly of bipartisanship, should seriously consider this advice. Struggling to push bills through […]

Thumbs up to health-oriented organizations of York County that recently conducted a community health survey. Along with the reassuring opinion that the region is a good place to live and work, the survey revealed serious concerns with the prevalence of obesity, substance abuse, cancer and tobacco use. We’re sure health professionals and policy makers will […]

The government’s preoccupation with national security has eased with the  new administration, but monitoring and surveillance remain a U.S. priority. Initiatives to keep tabs on citizens show no signs of withering away. The assumption seems to be that we should accept the tightening reins of government because they are now in more benevolent hands. But […]

With just 260 days until the start of the federal census in 2010, the U.S. Senate has at last approved the president’s nominee for director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Republican critics were in no hurry to confirm Robert Grove of the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center. His nomination had languished for more than […]

No one can know when the economic crisis will begin to ease, but President Obama provided welcome reassurance in his weekly radio address Saturday. The jobs report for June showed a sharp rise in unemployment. Currently 14.7 million Americans are unemployed and economists predicted that the national jobless rate will soon reach 10 percent. In […]

Thumbs up to York County Commission chairwoman Sallie Chandler for reversing her initial stance that cameras couldn’t be used in the meeting room, a courtroom at York County Courthouse, where the commission held a meeting last week. Chandler changed her mind after fellow commissioner Dan Cabral said he didn’t care one way or another. While […]

County commissioners emerged from a long session behind closed doors this week with somewhat reassuring words: York County government will likely be able to avoid making layoffs until the end of the year. This was good news to the county employees who crowded into the small courtroom for the Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday. A […]

A federal court this week cleared the way for General Motors to sell off assets and reorganize. The process ahead will be so painful for GM stockholders, creditors and employees that only one thing can justify it: The hope that the car company can be reborn as a profitable business. Most stockholders already know that […]